But, for some reason, I found it oddly sexy—in a very twisted, vampirish kind of way.
“Right. That thought just crossed the line, Ara-Rose,” I said, pinching myself. “Wake up.”
“Ara?” Jase stood suddenly, his arms falling by his sides as he slowly turned at the shoulders.
“In the flesh,” I muttered awkwardly, sinking my neck into my shoulders.
He checked all four corners of the room, his brow furrowed. “Ar? You here?”
“Over here, dummy.” I laughed.
He walked slowly toward me, his eyes small. “Is . . . is that you?”
“Of course it’s me,” I said, but as I went to slap him, my hand went right through his. “Whoa.”
He stepped closer, the green in his wondering eyes reflecting the glowing orb of blue he was staring at. “Look at you, pretty girl. So lovely in blue.”
I looked down at my own hands, seeing them as ghostly fog. “What’s happening, Jase?”
“You’re dreaming.”
I waved my hands through the chilly air. “Some dream, huh? It feels so real.”
He glanced back at his kill, echoes of her screams shadowing his eyes, and humbly lowered his head. “You were never supposed to see me like that.”
“Like what?”
He exhaled, wiping his wrist across his bloodied mouth. “Like a killer.”
“You weren’t that bad. Besides. . .” I looked over at the limp girl. “This is only a dream. You don’t really kill like that, right?”
His jaw went tight. “What if I did?”
“What if you did?” I repeated playfully.
“Would you hate me?”
I laughed, rolling my head back. “No. Silly.”
“Really?”
“Why would I? I know what you are—I always have.”
He scratched his head and looked down at his shoes, taking a sharp breath through his teeth. “Then, I uh—I better tell you. . .”
“This . . . isn’t a dream, is it?”
“No.” He shrunk into himself a little, as if my hand were waiting in the air with a giant slap at the ready. “You’re outside your body right now.”
“I am?” I looked at my hands again.
“Yes. You’re . . . you’re a wandering soul. You don’t even have a face.”
I touched my face. “Freaky. So, what do I look like?”
“Blue light.”
“Really? ‘Cause I look pretty normal to me. Just kind of see-through.”
“Like a ghost?”
“Yeah.” I looked back up at Jason, but his eyes kept flicking over my entire body, not really fixing my gaze like they normally did. “But I feel normal.”
“I know.” He smiled at me. “But I really wish you hadn’t ended up down here.”
We both glanced slowly at the dead girl.
“I’m really not that sensitive anymore, Jase.”
“Still. . .” he said, and left it hanging, switching again to the light, carefree Jase I loved so much. “Why do you always end up with me when you escape your body?”
“Didn’t know I did.”
“Well. . .” He looked down at his shoes, stuffing both hands in his pockets. “You do.”
I shrugged, but he wouldn’t have seen it as a shrug. “Guess I just miss you.”
“Yeah, I miss you too, little glow bug.” He reached out and brushed his hand affectionately through my arm; it felt warm and tingly, kind of like standing right next to the air vent on a heater. “But you better get back, your colour’s fading, and I have a body to dispose of.”
“Okay then.” I nodded, peeling my eyes away from the thumb he aimed at his kill. “I’ll come see you later. I wanna talk more about this.”
“You won’t remember it,” he said factually, turning away.
“I won’t?”
“Nope.” He bent down and looped the dead girl’s arm over his neck. “You never do.”
***
What David and I had done in this bed with each other over the past few weeks had surely ruined Arthur’s turkey baster plan. I’d held off as long as I could, but couldn’t exactly tell my husband I didn’t want to have sex with him in case I fell pregnant and ruined his uncle’s and my plan to save him from certain death. So, I let him have me last night, all of me, and prayed now, as I laid here in his sleeping arms, that we hadn’t conceived. I wished it didn’t matter. I wished I could imagine his life force moving through me, inside me, electrifying things to existence within my body. I wished I could cup my hand over my belly and imagine the colour of her hair, or if she’d have his eyes or mine. What kind of smile she’d have, whose temperament she’d have. But all of those dreams belonged to normal people—to people who were human and not immortal weapons, whose vampire-hunting child was foretold to be powerful enough that one of the oldest immortals in the world wanted her dead before she could even say her first word.
“Morning,” David said sleepily, and all my thoughts halted, my hand falling away from my belly.
“Hey.” I rolled slightly to look up at him; his stubble had grown in thicker overnight, making him look gruff and sexy, covering his dimple just enough that it looked like a ditch in the ground covered by grown-in grass. And under his thick, dark brows, pulled together slightly as he studied my eyes, those shining green emeralds stood out, brightening my day. “I love the feel of your hand on my back first thing in the morning.”
“Is that so?” He spread his fingers wider, waking each inch of my skin he touched, firmly cupping my hip and moving his fingertips just into the rim of my underwear, a naughty millimetre away from my butt-crack. “And I love feeling you in my hands first thing in the morning,” he added.
I giggled, pressing my head into his kiss. “Woke up on the right side of bed today, huh?”
“When I wake with you snuggled into me like this.” He squeezed me. “I can’t possibly wake in a bad mood.”
“Well, you’ve woken up late today.” I patted his chest and pushed off it gently to sit, tucking my legs to one side. “Breakfast is in ten minutes.”
He rolled onto his side, his body going long as he grabbed his watch off the nightstand and checked it. “Lucky I’m a speedy vampire and can break records for getting showered and dressed.”
I copied his lively smirk. “Yes, but it’s a pity you’re not the king and can just decide breakfast isn’t all that important today.”